Three’s a Crowd

by Dianne Blacklock

  When she felt calm and in control again, she leaned forwards to press the button of the intercom. ‘Send Mr Barrett in, thank you, Brooke.’

  She stood and walked to the door, opening it as he arrived. She nodded.

  ‘Catherine, thanks for seeing me,’ he said.

  Like I had a choice, she felt like saying, but she didn’t. Instead she just said, ‘Take a seat.’

  He walked past her and sat down in a chair opposite her desk, putting his briefcase down beside him and crossing his legs.

  ‘So, what brings you here, unannounced, James?’ said Catherine as she took her seat.

  ‘Well, you wouldn’t take my calls.’

  ‘And clearly you wouldn’t take a hint.’

  He took a breath. ‘Catherine, I’m not trying to upset you, I was only hoping to talk, catch up. It feels as though there’s unfinished business between us.’

  ‘What makes you think that?’

  ‘The very fact that you won’t take my calls,’ he said plainly.

  She bristled. ‘I’m a busy woman, James.’

  ‘I appreciate that, Catherine. I just . . .’ he hesitated, before shaking his head. ‘My wife always says I won’t leave things alone.’

  Christ.

  ‘It didn’t seem to bother you eighteen years ago,’ she sniped.

  He looked up then, blinking. Shit, why did she say that?

  ‘But it did, Catherine,’ he insisted. ‘I guess that’s what I wanted you to know. I mean, I was just a kid, really, we were both kids. And I know I should have got in touch, but I was upset.’

  He was upset? Everything was handled for him, he should have been relieved.

  ‘I snapped out of it after a couple of weeks, and I tried to look for you,’ he went on. ‘I waited at your school, around the bus lines, but I never saw you again.’ He paused. ‘To be honest, and I don’t mean to sound overly dramatic, it’s always haunted me a little, Catherine.’

  She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t speak. What did he want from her? It didn’t seem that he knew about Alice. Or did he? What the fuck was he doing here?

  ‘I suppose I’ve just always wondered if you were okay,’ he said finally.

  She took a moment to find her voice, and her nerve. ‘Look around you, James, I’m doing just fine. You don’t need to wonder any more.’

  He stared at her for a moment. Catherine stood abruptly. ‘Thanks for stopping by, but now I really have work to do.’

  ‘Of course,’ he nodded, getting to his feet. ‘Thanks for your time.’

  She went to the door and opened it. He walked towards her and put out his hand. ‘It was good seeing you again, Catherine. I expect our paths will cross in the future.’

  She took his hand and shook it. ‘I expect they will. Bye James.’

  He left the office and Catherine closed the door again. She walked back to her chair and sat down before her legs gave out on her.

  That afternoon

  Catherine had no sooner walked in the door than Alice was in her face.

  ‘Mum, you know how I asked if I could go to that under eighteens dance party tomorrow night? And you were still deciding? Well, now Sophie Veitch wants to come –’

  ‘Sophie’s going out with you?’

  ‘Well, only if I’m allowed to go,’ said Alice. ‘Tom said if it’s okay with you, then it’s okay with him.’

  ‘Did he now? Why didn’t he just give me a call?’ said Catherine. ‘I don’t bite.’

  ‘Whatever.’ Alice pulled a face. ‘I had to talk to you first anyway, or else you wouldn’t have known what it was about.’

  ‘Okay, can you go over it for me again?’ said Catherine, walking through to the kitchen.

  Alice followed her, rattling off what sounded like very convoluted arrangements, while Catherine poured herself a drink. They were going to someone or other’s place to get ready, and her mother was driving them to the venue, and someone else’s mother was picking them up, but she would be dropping them at one of the other girl’s places where they would stay the night, because they all couldn’t fit at the one house.

  ‘Why don’t you and Sophie just stay at our place?’

  Alice shrugged. ‘You don’t like me bringing anyone back to sleep over when you’ve been out.’

  That was true. If there was a chance she might have a hangover the next day, Catherine didn’t care to have an audience. ‘When are we talking about?’

  She groaned. ‘Tomorrow night, Mum. You’re going to be at Lexie’s, remember?’

  ‘Oh, that’s right,’ said Catherine, half to herself, gazing across the bench at her daughter, into her eyes. Her father’s eyes. That was the only thing she had inherited from him, his blue eyes. People often remarked upon it, because in every other way she was very much like Catherine. But Catherine’s eyes were brown, and Alice had the same clear blue eyes that had looked at her across her desk this morning.

  ‘Mum?’ Alice prompted her. ‘Are you all right?’

  Catherine snapped out of it. ‘Yes, darling, I’m fine, it’s just been a long week.’

  ‘So what can I tell Sophie?’

  Catherine didn’t have the energy to make Alice jump through hoops this time; she had just finished serving her longest grounding ever, she should give her the benefit of the doubt. She had to admit it was good to see her out of her room and excited about something. Besides, she definitely wanted to encourage this friendship with Sophie.

  ‘Tell Sophie yes, she can tell her father it’s fine with me. But you have to make sure I have the names of the parents and the phone numbers of the various places you’re going to be,’ she called after Alice, who had let out a whoop as soon as Catherine had uttered the word ‘Yes’, and promptly raced out of the room and up the stairs.

  ‘Did you hear all that, Alice?’

  ‘Yeah, sure Mum, no worries.’

  That evening

  ‘What’s going on, Scott?’

  Lexie had just walked in the door after another exhausting day. She hadn’t spoken to Scott since last night; she left the house before any of them were up this morning. She also left a list for him. If Scott thought running the house was the easy option, and he really did intend to leave things at the café up to her, then she had a right to certain expectations here at home. But she was tired and cranky. This was feeling less like a transition phase and more like they were marking out battlelines. And she really was not up to going to war.

  ‘Nothing’s going on,’ Scott answered her.

  ‘I can see that,’ she said, looking around. The house was a mess, the kids were playing outside, and he was standing at the kitchen bench, opening a beer. He looked up.

  ‘What’s your point?’

  She took a breath. Patience. ‘Well, have you thought about dinner, and the kids have to have their baths . . .’

  ‘Chill, hun, it’s a Friday night,’ he said, taking a swig of his beer. ‘Want a drink?’

  ‘No thank you,’ she said, dumping her bag on the bench. ‘Did you get the shopping done?’

  ‘Nah,’ he said, turning to flick his bottle top into the bin, so he missed the look of shock on Lexie’s face.

  ‘It was such a beautiful day,’ he went on. ‘I took Mia down the beach, and we ended up staying there all morning. Then we came back for a nap, then we had to go pick up Riley, and when he got wind we’d been to the beach he was upset that he’d missed out, so I took them both down this afternoon.’

  Lexie was beginning to seethe inside. ‘Scott, have you forgotten we’ve got people coming tomorrow night?’

  ‘Don’t stress,’ he said. ‘It’ll all get done.’

  ‘Yeah, because now I’m going to have to do it all tomorrow.’

  ‘No, you won’t. I’ll handle it.’

  ‘How are you going to organise a barbecue and clean this house while you’re at the café all day?’

  ‘I’m not going to be at the café, you are.’

  ‘What?’ she blinked. ‘Look Scott, I
never said I wanted to take over full-time, that was your idea. I just wanted us to share a little more of the load.’

  ‘So, this is sharing,’ he shrugged. ‘I was talking to Dad today and they’re pouring a slab for his new shed tomorrow. They could use another pair of hands, so I said I’d go round and help.’

  Lexie had to physically give her head a shake to take all that in. ‘Why did you say you’d do that when you know we’re having a houseful of people over that night?’

  ‘It’s six of us for a barbecue, Lexie, stop making such a big deal about it. I never get to help Dad out, I’m always working. I really want to do this.’

  ‘Fine, I’ll just have to ring everyone and tell them it’s off tomorrow night.’

  ‘Don’t be so dramatic, Lex,’ he chided. ‘Everything’ll get done. I’ll be at Dad’s for the morning, I’ll do the shopping on the way home, and I’ll have the whole afternoon to clean up and get ready.’

  ‘But just look at this place,’ she insisted. ‘Do you realise what has to be done around here? The floors, the kitchen, the shower . . .’

  ‘No one’s going to be taking a shower tomorrow night, Lexie.’

  ‘But they’ll use the bathroom. It still has to be clean.’

  ‘I don’t think it’s a priority,’ he shrugged. ‘You’re going to have to give up some control about the way things are done around here, Lex, if we’re going to be “sharing the load”.’

  ‘So this is how you get back at me?’ she said.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘You do a really bad job around the house, and I’ll give up “interfering” in the café and everything will go back to the way it was.’

  ‘I don’t think I did a really bad job today,’ Scott said plainly. ‘I had a fantastic day with my kids, I was there for them one hundred per cent, and not just for the fun stuff. They were fed decent food, Mia had her nap, Riley was picked up from school on time. So the house is a little messy. I don’t remember you ever saying that housework should take precedence over the kids.’

  ‘Of course it doesn’t.’ Lexie was feeling cornered. ‘But certain things still have to get done.’

  ‘Lexie, you don’t want my input in how you run the café –’

  ‘I never said that.’

  ‘Whatever,’ he dismissed. ‘You’re going to have to accept the way I run things here at home. That’s the only way this is going to work.’

  ‘Fine, you’re right,’ said Lexie. ‘But I’d rather do the home shift tomorrow, you can go to the café.’

  ‘Sorry, I’m already committed to helping Dad.’

  ‘So we’re not even going to discuss it?’

  He shook his head, walking from the room. ‘There’s nothing to discuss.’

  Saturday night

  Rachel jumped off the bus as soon as the doors swished open. She was so late. It had been an incredibly busy day at work; one of the juniors had called in sick – probably hungover – so they’d been run off their feet all day, which meant cleaning up also took longer. By Rachel’s calculations, she should have been home and in the shower already around the time she was just getting on the bus. And then disaster struck, literally – they were majorly held up by an accident that happened almost right in front of them. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt, but they were blocked in, the driver couldn’t detour, so they had no choice but to wait until tow-trucks arrived to clear the cars out of the way. Rachel considered getting off and walking the last few blocks, but it turned out the driver was some kind of OH&S nazi, and he refused to open the doors while the bus was in the middle of the road, despite the fact there was no through traffic with the road completely blocked by the accident.

  Tom kept messaging to find out what was taking her so long, and he even offered to come and get her, but she messaged back that it was no use, he wouldn’t be able to get through either. She had toyed with the idea of going straight to Lexie’s, but she’d promised to bring a potato salad and it was waiting in her fridge at home, and she really needed a shower and a change of clothes. By the time she’d done all that, and waited for another bus to Clovelly, she was very late, and quite breathless when she finally knocked on the Dingles’ front door.

  ‘Hi,’ Lexie said when she opened it. She looked a little flat, not her usual ebullient self. Rachel hoped she wasn’t cranky with her for being so late.

  ‘I’m really sorry I’m so late –’

  ‘Don’t worry about it,’ Lexie dismissed. ‘I got your message, you poor thing, stuck on the bus all that time.’

  ‘I brought the salad,’ Rachel offered, holding it up.

  ‘Thanks for that,’ she sighed wearily, taking the bowl from Rachel and leading her down the hall. ‘The house is a mess, please don’t look at the bathroom especially. I did manage to clean the toilet when I came home. I asked Scott if he’d done that at least, and you know what he said? That it looked all right to him.’

  Rachel gave her an encouraging smile. ‘I’m sure everything’s fine, Lexie. Besides, we’re all here to see each other, not to inspect the house.’

  Lexie walked around the bench into the kitchen. ‘Scott’s barely lifted a finger. The most he managed was to get to the butcher’s.’

  ‘He didn’t work again today?’ asked Rachel.

  ‘No, I had to, he seems to have gone into semi-retirement.’ Lexie picked up a knife to resume chopping vegetables. ‘Scott assured me he’d handle everything, then I get a call at four – four o’clock this afternoon, Rachel – to say he was just leaving his parents’ place and he’d only have time to get to the butcher’s, could I pick up salad stuff, bread rolls . . . everything!’ She waved the knife in the air.

  Rachel had never seen Lexie like this.

  ‘He knows better than anyone what the café’s like on a Saturday afternoon. Josh, bless him, offered to finish closing or I never would have got out of there. And then I come home and the place is a shambles, nothing’s been cleaned, and Riley’s rearranged the living room and made tunnels and cubbies out of the sofa cushions and blankets that he’s dragged from the linen cupboard. But Scott’s completely oblivious; he’s got stuff spread from one end of the kitchen to the other, making a special “rub” for the meat that he’d read about and wanted to try.’ She actually growled. This time she slammed the knife down onto the chopping board, right through the middle of a cucumber. Rachel couldn’t help think she was imagining it was something else.

  ‘Would you like some help, Lexie?’ she asked tentatively.

  ‘No, you’ve been working all day too,’ said Lexie. ‘What are you drinking? Let me get you a glass.’ She turned around to the cupboards behind her.

  Rachel drew out a bottle of wine from the cooler bag she’d brought, and Lexie set a glass down in front of her.

  ‘You’re going to need to catch up to that lot out there,’ she said, cocking her head towards the back garden. ‘Scott’s drinking beer like it’s going out of style, after being sick all week. Of course, Catherine’s having no trouble keeping up with him, she’s already half-tanked.’

  ‘I know she had some unexpected news last week, it’s probably thrown her a bit,’ Rachel offered in an attempt to calm things over, but Lexie didn’t even seem to take it in.

  ‘And Martin, well he’s in the doldrums, big time, I don’t know what’s going on there. The whole night is turning into a disaster. It was supposed to make Tom feel included. He probably wishes we hadn’t bothered.’

  ‘I’m sure he doesn’t feel that way, Lexie.’

  ‘You should go outside, he’ll be happy to see your face, I reckon.’

  Rachel hesitated. ‘Are you sure I can’t help somehow?’

  ‘You’ll help most if you go out and make nice with Tom.’

  She should be able to manage that.

  Rachel picked up her glass and wandered out through the playroom and into the small backyard, where the four of them were sitting in a half-circle. Tom’s face lit up when she appeared and he leaped ou
t of his seat.

  ‘Hey, Rach, it’s great to see you,’ he said, throwing his arms around her. ‘It’s really great to see you,’ he muttered in her ear. ‘You have no idea.’

  Rachel pulled back from him. ‘It’s nice to see you too, Tom. How have you been?’

  ‘Good, really good,’ he said. ‘You look fantastic, Rachel, what have you been doing with yourself?’

  ‘Yeah, you do look great,’ said Scott expansively, standing up to greet her with a kiss.

  ‘I should come here more often,’ Rachel remarked. ‘All these compliments. I blame working in the juice bar, it’s like an enforced detox. I seem to live on carrots and celery and watermelon.’

  ‘Well, it certainly agrees with you,’ said Tom, gazing at her with a kind of proud glint in his eye. Don’t overdo it, Tom.

  ‘Oh stop,’ she joked, ‘you’re going to make me blush.’

  ‘Then her face goes all red and blotchy,’ Catherine broke in, standing up to join them. ‘She’s not so pretty then, let me tell you.’

  ‘Hi there, Martin,’ Rachel said, craning to see around Catherine, who was standing right in front of him. ‘How are you?’

  ‘Don’t ask, he’s likely to tell you,’ said Catherine, linking her arm through Rachel’s. ‘I’m just borrowing her for a sec, boys, girl-talk,’ she said, drawing her away.

  ‘Okay,’ said Rachel uncertainly. ‘But can I just grab a chair? My feet are killing me.’

  ‘No, I’d rather stand,’ Catherine said, dragging her down to the back fence. ‘Every time I sit down Mia thinks it’s an invitation to climb all over me,’ she grimaced. ‘She’s like a cat – you know how they always go for the one person in the room who doesn’t like cats?’

  Rachel wanted to get whatever this was over with so she could sit down. ‘What did you want to talk about?’ she prompted Catherine.

  ‘James showed up at my office yesterday, just like that, unannounced and uninvited.’